Visit
Kerstin Müller in discussion with Hanan Ashrawi
Visit of Kerstin Mueller MoP in the Occupied Palestinian Territories on May 26th-27th 2010
Kerstin Müller, the foreign policy spokesperson of the Greens/ Alliance 90 parliamentary group in the German Bundestag and former Minister of State at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs the Palestinian Territories. The program included meetings with Sabri Saidam, senior presidential aide and Hanan Ashrawi, member of the PLO executive committee and Chairperson of Miftah, (the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy). Prior to her trip, Kerstin Müller had the opportunity to meet Prime Minister Salam Fayyad during his political visit program in Berlin.
During her visit, Mrs. Müller used the opportunity to meet also with civil society members and participated in a round table discussion with George Giacaman, the co-founder and director of Muwatin (the Palestinian Institute for the Study of Democracy) and faculty member in the Department of Philosophy, Cultural Studies at Birzeit University.
At a visit to the German Cultural Institute, Jörg Schumacher, the Goethe Institute´s director facilitatd a conversation with representatives of the Palestinian cultural scene on working conditions for Palestinian artists. Later on, Mrs. Müller could join for a discussion round focusing on the female perspective of the current situation in Palestine with several outspoken representatives from the Palestinian civil society and women organizations.
Though the originally planned trip to Gaza had to be abandoned as a result of a denied permission to enter, a meeting with John Ging, UNRWA's chief of operations could be arranged outside Gaza. Mrs. Müller got a comprehensive update about the current humanitarian and political situation in Gaza.
Her trip ended after visting Bethlehem and Beit Jalah with insights to another controversial issue: the expanding settlements and its impacts on Palestinian daily life.
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Kerstin Müller - Spokesperson on foreign policy
From the website of the Green Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag:
Political CV
Member of the Green Party (since 1986)
Spokesperson for the Green Party, Cologne branch (1987-89)
Spokesperson for Alliance '90/The Greens in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (1990-94)
Member of parliament and chair of the Alliance '90/The Greens parliamentary group, (1994-2002)
Member of the Mediation Committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat (lower and upper houses of German Parliament) (13th and 14th legislative period)
Member of the Alliance 90/The Greens party council (since 1999)
Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office (15th legislative period, 2002-2005)